Following developments in road safety, autonomous driving and new mobility

2018 Honda Accord Hybrid rated by EPA at 47 mpg combined

The EPA has now released the fuel-efficiency ratings for the 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid, and they came in 1 mpg below the combined number the company had hoped to reach.

At a drive event last fall, Honda said it hoped the redesigned Accord Hybrid could manage the same fuel-efficiency ratings as last year’s model: 49 mpg city, 47 highway, 48 combined—or perhaps slightly better.

But in fact the hybrid 2018 Accord comes in at 47 mpg across the board, for city, highway, and combined ratings.

And the base and highest-efficiency versions of Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and Kia Optima Hybrid, which use similar underpinnings, are rated at 41 mpg combined and 42 mpg combined, respectively.

The 2018 Honda Accord is sleeker, lighter, lower, and cuts a smaller hole in the air than the last model, but its two-motor hybrid powertrain carries only very minor updates from that used in the prior generation of Accord Hybrid.

A 2.0-liter Atkinson-cycle engine rated at 143 horsepower is paired with a 134-kilowatt (188 hp) electric traction motor, which can provide power to the wheels solely on electricity from the battery in certain driving conditions—a “series hybrid” configuration.

During heavy acceleration or high-speed cruising, a clutch locks the engine and motor together to power the front wheels—a “parallel hybrid” drive—that is more efficient.

Net power output of the combined powertrain is rated at 212 hp, slightly higher than the previous-generation 2017 model.